I am a first-term graduate student in the joint MA program. I received a BA in English from the Citadel in 2011, and I am excited to have the opportunity to further my education. I am open to any career opportunities that present themselves, but my hope is to teach literature at the collegiate level in some capacity and hopefully do so at my alma mater, The Citadel.
I am a 13-year Navy veteran. I served as a nuclear reactor operator onboard the USS Nebraska before being selected for a commissioning program. As part of this program, I was given the opportunity to earn my bachelors degree and receive a commission in the Navy. I choose to attend The Citadel and I selected English as my major. It remains one of the best decisions I have ever made. Following my retirement, my wife and I worked for two years to facilitate moving our family back to Charleston, a place we have always considered home. I am grateful to finally be pursing what I consider to be my professional calling.
I am a husband and father of 2 children (and one on the way). My daughter (10) and son (8) both attend Stiles Point Elementary. My wonderful wife is a Nurse Practitioner at Roper St. Francis. My single hobby occupies most my free time. I have trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for more than 10 years, and I currently teach classes at Devine Jiu Jitsu in Charleston.
My Goals for the Class
Having never taught in a classroom, I have modest goals for this class. First, I hope to learn how technology is currently being used effectively. By listening carefully to my fellow students who are current educators I hope to accomplish this. Secondly, I would like to know what methods have been tried unsuccessfully. What medias or methods have these educators tried, and why in their opinion were they not ultimately worth while? Was the technology not sophisticated enough, or were the ideas flawed from inception? I hope that by amassing these "lessons learned," I can avoid common pitfalls when I become a classroom educator. My final hope is that by analyzing this information alongside our course work, I will emerge with a clearer picture of how I will use technology in the classroom effectively.
Prezi Presentation
For my Prezi project, I attempted to create a presentation that accomplished two things: effectively summarized the article "The Map is not the Country: Cartography in Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men by John Bruns and show how, using the text, we can use a map to chart the otherwise confusing paths that two of the main characters take. A prezi presentation is particularly useful for this subject because of its ability to use motion and custom images to create a sense of movement and, ironically, create a cartography for the subject. Creating the Prezi actually aided me in visualizing the journeys of the two men, and it certainly added to my understanding of the plot. If time were not an issue, I would trace the path of the third and final main character as well. This would give a complete visual representation of the plot of No Country for Old Men.
In creating this Prezi, I was able to disprove a large portion of the author's argument. In the article, Bruns broadly asserts that the book and movie lack an overall cohesiveness in location. I am able to show, in the second portion of the Prezi, how each character's path is logistically possible using quotes from the text. This presentation is an example of how a Prezi can be used to complete an assignment that would normally be done using a Word document but do so in a way that actually enhances your ability to communicate a thought. With Prezi, the argument is more powerful; I am able to show in real time the journey each man took.
Digital Storytelling Project
Assignment:
Using Legos and other provided materials, create a movie that teaches a moral or lesson.
Online tools used: Lego Moviemaker, Youtube
Schedule: The students have 2 hours to complete the assignment.
Goals:
Use teamwork to complete the assignment within the time limit
Create a complete narrative with beginning, middle, and end.
Teach a lesson or moral
Have fun!
To test this assignment out, I assigned it to my 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. I showed them some basic functions on the Lego Movie Maker app and let each of them play with it for an hour, making their own movies. I provided them with the scene planners (from our wikipage) and briefly explained how to use them. After both had time to familiarize themselves with the concepts, I gave them the assignment and told them they had 2 hours to complete it.
They created, edited and directed the movie themselves. The idea came from a tale in a book of Aesop’s fables that my daughter keeps. The only supervision that was required was for the voice over portion, which is admittedly pretty tricky. Both enjoyed the project and have since created many more movies using the Lego Movie Maker.
Overview:
Rap battles are, by their very nature, battles for rhetorical supremacy. There are multiple ways to defeat your opponent; a well crafted appeal to the audience can best even the soundest of reasons. The object of this lesson would be to use this unique style of argument to improve the students ability to formulate well reasoned arguments and identify rhetorical devices in opposing arguments. It would also serve as a great supplemental assignment for a section on poetry.
Organization:
Students are split into pairs of competing teams of up to four students. Students have one class period to craft their argument using Rationale Online. The following class period the rap battle would take place between the opposing teams.The teams would then swap verses and dissect their opponents arguments. Their critiques would be brought to the following class, listing any fallacies they find.
Participation:
The teams would work together to formulate the points of reason using rationaleonline.com. Students would then work independently the remaining class period and at home to craft their verse.
Presentation:
Students would present in a back and forth order to establish a peer determined victor. Use of student provided beats are encouraged.
Subject Matter:
Anything (within reason). Sports teams rivalries, comic book characters, Han Solo vs Boba Fett, Coke vs Pepsi etc.
Grading Criteria:
Students would have successfully completed the assignment by turning in a written form of their verse on the assignment due date, and their opposing argument critique the following class. Students are not required to participate in the actual rap battle, but for those electing not to do so an additional supplementary explanation of their verse would be required. The verses will be composed using any rhyme scheme or arrangement the student chooses but may not contain any: offensive language (grade-level dependent), personal attacks, or other derogatory content. All would constitute a poorly reasoned argument, and thus a failing grade.The verse should contain:
At least two well reasoned appeals
At least 2 additional appeals (of any type)
At least one well disguised fallacy
My hope is that a project like this would get students interested in rhetoric, the different types of appeals, and the use of fallacies. This area of writing is often overlooked in my opinion primarily because of its dry nature, but with the right presentation students could benefit from learning some of the basic rules of rhetoric. It would also expose the students to rationaleonline.com, a great visual organizational resource
Oral History Project: Humans of the Citadel
Background: Events and periods in history send rippling effects through our society, forever altering the lives of those they effect. Some events help frame a particular time in people’s lives, such as The Great Depression. Everyone has a connection to history, and certain moments stand out more than others as significant to us.
Overview This Oral History project will focus on employees and faculty who work around the school. Specifically, how an event or period in history impacted their life. I wanted to focus on something that could be done in any setting. Because no one event is focused on, finding willing participants should make the project relatively straight forward. The interview will eventually be transcribed onto paper so any recording device can be used for the project to conduct the interview. This helps ease any technology limitations students may have. The picture, which will accompany the written portion of the project, can be taken using any device but a brief lesson on photography might be useful.
Assignment: This will be an ongoing student assignment, similar to a midterm paper. They will conduct a 45-minute interview with an assigned employee of the school, unless the student has a faculty member they prefer to interview. The two will communicate via email to establish which historical event or period they will discuss, the location of the interview, and a time to meet.
The location of the interview is unimportant so long as the conversation can easily be recorded. The interview should focus briefly on the event itself (an overview will suffice), and then more extensively on the person’s memories of that event or period in history. Students should use questions that prompt introspection as opposed to summary. Example questions might be:
How did the event impact their lives?
Was the individual at the school when the event happened?
How did the event change the way they viewed the world?
Did it cause them to make changes in their own lives?
Did it impact their family or friends as well?
Students should spend the majority of the interview in this area of discussion
After the interview, students will prepare a “Humans of New York” style blog post about the person, complete with a photo. The post should be between 500-900 words and consist primarily of quotations from the person. This will challenge the student to look at the interview in totality and narrow it to a smaller, more acutely insightful vision into that person’s own history.
Evaluation: Throughout the process, students will be required to make regular reports of the progress on their project. Students will email the topic, time and location of the interview, for example. They will also follow up reporting any issues they encountered during the interview. Because the project is weighted more heavily in areas outside traditional composition, grading will focus more on the overall effort put into the project, the presentation, and timely completion.
Wiki
For my wiki project, I wanted to create something that would be useful to the students. My goal is to have the students create a wiki that will serve as a study guide for their midterm and final exams. I am someone who personally stresses about tests way more so than papers. I never feel like I know enough information about something, and as an undergrad that led to many anxiety-filled late nights and early mornings. I never felt like my notes were good enough. The wiki I plan to use will assign days throughout the semester to each student. For that day, the students will be responsible for completing their portion of the wiki. They will also post an analysis in the Discussion portion of the page, where they will state an observation about the text, and then formulate a question based on this observation. In this way, I hope the page would also serve as a brainstorming area for potential paper topics for the students.
My goal for the blog is to reward students who are willing to put forth effort. If a student is a poor test taker, I want to have a structure in place to allow that student to work their grade up to an A. The same is true for students who do not feel comfortable contributing in class. A weekly reflection blog might provide a venue to allow students who struggle in a variety of areas to show effort in another way.
For the blog, I would ask students to perform a minimum of one entry per week reflecting on our reading and class discussion. The content would focus on ideas and themes from the text that might be further explored in a paper. Often it seems that the key to developing a paper topic is to simply put ideas on paper and allow them to take shape. Opening a blank word document and trying to think of the first words to type for a research paper can be intimidating. A blog can collect ideas as the student progresses through the story, ones that can be explored at a later time. It also leaves open the possibility of reflecting on an idea or theme over the course of the text. This would allow a student to formulate multiple ideas as they read the assignment. By writing these observations down as they go, they can also keep track of quotes and page numbers. This would hopefully minimize frustrating quests to relocate particular quotes or scenes from a book.
Gustave Dore's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"
I would also use the blog as an alternative form of class participation. The goal would be to include students who might be afraid to offer their opinions during class, or have social anxiety. A personalized blog might be a way for such a person to participate in class without the accompanying speaking portion. I plan on reading the posts before our first class for the week, and bringing up points that students discussed in their reflections. This might provide an opportunity to those who do not wish to vocally participate in class a chance to join the discussion as well.
As long as the students enter a minimum number of posts over the course of the semester, they will earn credit for completing the blog. If a student explored a theme at length (~750 words) and cited examples from the text, they would receive bonus credit that would offset low in-class participation or low quiz scores.
Technology Article: Using 3-D Printing in the Classroom
Andrew Gillen’s article “The new standard in technology education: 3-D design class” focuses on the growing 3-D design market and the educational opportunities it offers (The article is available in full .pdf form from the Citadel library). Gillen chooses to focus on the 3-D design process itself as an educational tool that furthers STEM learning in the classroom. Gillen lays out a complete plan to implement a 3-D design class in a middle school environment, although the exercise would seem beneficial at any level of mathematics or science. His plan is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which that it also incorporates an artistic element in a truly complimentary way. The 12-week course involves a gradual progression of instruction, culminating in an independent project and presentation.
Gillen describes his class plan in detail, starting with the free download that allows teachers to begin the process, AutoDesk 123D Design (1). Using this and online tutorials, Gillen describes how teachers can easily establish, “a 3-D design class to supplement traditional technology education” (1). The process begins with an introduction project meant to “ease students into modeling” (1). The process uses orthographic projections, or a view in which each projection is of a particular side of and object (See Figure 1). Using an orthographic projection, and following a brief introduction, students are asked to build the projections in 3-D using Lego blocks. Gillen describes how the difficulty can be adjusted for each students needs. He also provides a link to his checklist used to assess students on the project.
Figure 1: example Orthographic Projection
After the students become comfortable with the concepts of 3-D modeling, Gillen moves them into the next portion of the course. Drawing on their mathematics curriculum and a knowledge of the xy graphing system, Gillen adds a third, and possibly unknown coordinate, the z axis. Using the AutoDesk software, students are now ready to begin designing in 3-D. Gillen provides a detailed guide that includes when and what tools to introduce to students to allow them to build their own knowledge and skill set independently. Gillen then describes the two culminating projects for the course. The smaller, group-orientated mini-project, and the larger, independent final project. The mini-project combines the 2-D orthographic projections with the more advanced 3-D one, and uses them to create assembly files and assembly constraints within the AutoDesk software. This practice ensures that the students are prepared to do the same task independently for their final project.
For the culminating project, students are tasked with demonstrating from start to finish a complete engineering design process. Gillen describes this “simplified engineering design process” in 6 steps (11). One part of the project, the 3-D printing of the project, can be bypassed if a 3-D printer is unavailable. The purpose of the project, is for students to identify and design something that solves a problem. The final presentation includes a 3-D model, a sketch of the design, a computer model, and the isometric and orthographic design sketches as well.
I could easily see many applications for Andrew Gillen’s 3-D design class. His practical course plan provides a clear plan to introduce and evaluate students on a simplified 3-D engineering design process. He provides links to free software as well as checklist for guidance on assessing students throughout the process. A course like this one might grab the interest of someone in a class who previously was not interested in engineering. The opportunity to create something from imagination inspires people differently, and a demonstration with a 3-D printed model seems like a great reward for students. Given budget constraints, I doubt many schools can afford 3-D printers, but perhaps a parent who owns one might be willing to help out. Even without the model, however, the course has merit of its own in exposing students to an interesting career field.
Works Cited
Gillen, Andrew. "The new standard in technology education: 3-D design class." Science Scope. Summer 2016. pp. 8-15
Please Answer in the Form of a Question
Jeopardy Rocks is a great classroom resource that could be used in many applications. While Jeopardy Rocks has many possible applications, its most obvious uses would be as a study aide or warm up exercise in the classroom. Game creation is incredibly easy and free, allowing the user to begin creating with very little hassle. Because each Jeopardy quiz has a unique URL (for instance mine is www.jeopardy.rocks/licari), many of the issues with logging in or passwords can be avoided. This makes the technology inherently more reliable for use.
As previously stated, I would use this as a warm up exercise. Any grade associated with it would be related to the participation grade, as keeping track of "points" in any kind of meaningful way would likely become clumsy very quickly. Instead, I would use this like Kahoot!, purely as a way to grab students attention in the opening minutes of class. I would model the game around exam questions, so students could study for the examine by playing the game if they wanted. By adding this incentive for the students to "play," the game would hopefully become a tool that adds to the students understanding of the course material and less of a novelty exercise.
As technology advance us to Mars and beyond, science fiction increasingly has become science scientific fact. National Geographic’s 2016 series Mars: A Global Event features a fictional voyage to Mars using the technology that the documentary explores. This blending of science fact and science fiction might also be used in the classroom to generate cross-discipline interest, and refine writing skills by demonstrating the importance of researching a topic.
For my revision, I would re-examine my wiki assignment. Although I think my previous assignment would work in a college setting, I wanted to create something for lower grade levels that encourages interest across disciplines. The wiki will divide the current NASA and Space-X spaceship models into component parts and systems which the class will be responsible for researching. Those assigned to a system, for example, will write a description of the systems purpose, its use, and potential casualties originating from that system and their impact on the mission. They would be encouraged to embed videos and pictures that help visualize any concepts (a video of the Mars Rover launch might be helpful for example). The goal is to create a basic understanding of how the craft is constructed and operated. I have broken the project into systems that vary enough that I hope they will find an interest in exploring one of them.
After the systems and parts of the craft are understood, the class would then turn to writing a Mars exploration story that incorporates that technology into the plot. An example might be a story about the launch and transit to Mars.
The goals of the project would be to encourage cross-discipline interest and help students write more confidently about a subject by showing the importance of research. Whereas a student previously might have written, “The rocket blasted off into the sky,” they might now more accurately describe, “Jets of flame ignited the atomized liquid oxygen, and a roar of fire bellowed from the ships massive engines.” Thanks to NASA’s expansive website and Elon Musk’s policy of openly sharing his technology, research for the project is easy and comprehensive.
Evaluation
Group Research
25%
Group Presentation
10%
Short Story
25%
Participation
10%
Turned in on time
30%
The research portion of the project appears intimidating, but the NASA and Space-X Websites are filled with easy to understand information. I am not a fan of group presentations, so I wanted to keep the grading criteria loose in this area and low stakes (will not drop a student a letter grade). For the short story my focus in grading will be the creative integration of our research into their imagery and narrative. I have set up the evaluation criteria in this way to put the emphasis on getting the project done on time to ensure the Overview can be completed, and the short stories portion can begin. The participation grade is in place primarily as a grade booster.
Reflection
"The Great Escape," Baird Hoffmire, 2014
Over the course of the fall 2016 semester, the importance of pedagogical training has become abundantly clear. While the MAT program is specifically designed to provide this training, the MA program traditionally does not. With an eye toward teaching at the collegiate level, this creates a potential problem if the MA is a terminal degree. ENGL 564 has taught me the importance of actively seeking solutions to teaching obstacles such as this. As a ELA instructor, this means finding ways to effectively convey information to students and evaluate them. Teaching with Technology was, at its core, a class that emphasized effective content distribution over “using technology to use technology.”
To be an effective educator, using technology has become essential. Cloud storage, like Google Drive, is quickly becoming the standard inside even brick and mortar institutions. For example, all three of my classes utilized some banner type website or wikipage for content distribution and collection. Compare this to five years ago, when as an undergrad I can only recall a single class that used technology in a similar fashion. This trend toward digital learning seems to be only gaining momentum and so the need to sort the useful from the superfluous will also become a key skill with regard to teaching technology. This course has prepared me to make this decision by providing a framework for analyzing available software, creating content for the classroom, and project self-evaluation.
About Me
I am a first-term graduate student in the joint MA program. I received a BA in English from the Citadel in 2011, and I am excited to have the opportunity to further my education. I am open to any career opportunities that present themselves, but my hope is to teach literature at the collegiate level in some capacity and hopefully do so at my alma mater, The Citadel.
I am a 13-year Navy veteran. I served as a nuclear reactor operator onboard the USS Nebraska before being selected for a commissioning program. As part of this program, I was given the opportunity to earn my bachelors degree and receive a commission in the Navy. I choose to attend The Citadel and I selected English as my major. It remains one of the best decisions I have ever made. Following my retirement, my wife and I worked for two years to facilitate moving our family back to Charleston, a place we have always considered home. I am grateful to finally be pursing what I consider to be my professional calling.I am a husband and father of 2 children (and one on the way). My daughter (10) and son (8) both attend Stiles Point Elementary. My wonderful wife is a Nurse Practitioner at Roper St. Francis. My single hobby occupies most my free time. I have trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for more than 10 years, and I currently teach classes at Devine Jiu Jitsu in Charleston.
My Goals for the Class
Having never taught in a classroom, I have modest goals for this class. First, I hope to learn how technology is currently being used effectively. By listening carefully to my fellow students who are current educators I hope to accomplish this. Secondly, I would like to know what methods have been tried unsuccessfully. What medias or methods have these educators tried, and why in their opinion were they not ultimately worth while? Was the technology not sophisticated enough, or were the ideas flawed from inception? I hope that by amassing these "lessons learned," I can avoid common pitfalls when I become a classroom educator. My final hope is that by analyzing this information alongside our course work, I will emerge with a clearer picture of how I will use technology in the classroom effectively.
Prezi Presentation
For my Prezi project, I attempted to create a presentation that accomplished two things: effectively summarized the article "The Map is not the Country: Cartography in Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men by John Bruns and show how, using the text, we can use a map to chart the otherwise confusing paths that two of the main characters take. A prezi presentation is particularly useful for this subject because of its ability to use motion and custom images to create a sense of movement and, ironically, create a cartography for the subject. Creating the Prezi actually aided me in visualizing the journeys of the two men, and it certainly added to my understanding of the plot. If time were not an issue, I would trace the path of the third and final main character as well. This would give a complete visual representation of the plot of No Country for Old Men.
In creating this Prezi, I was able to disprove a large portion of the author's argument. In the article, Bruns broadly asserts that the book and movie lack an overall cohesiveness in location. I am able to show, in the second portion of the Prezi, how each character's path is logistically possible using quotes from the text. This presentation is an example of how a Prezi can be used to complete an assignment that would normally be done using a Word document but do so in a way that actually enhances your ability to communicate a thought. With Prezi, the argument is more powerful; I am able to show in real time the journey each man took.
Digital Storytelling Project
Assignment:
Using Legos and other provided materials, create a movie that teaches a moral or lesson.
Online tools used: Lego Moviemaker, Youtube
Schedule: The students have 2 hours to complete the assignment.
Goals:
To test this assignment out, I assigned it to my 8-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. I showed them some basic functions on the Lego Movie Maker app and let each of them play with it for an hour, making their own movies. I provided them with the scene planners (from our wikipage) and briefly explained how to use them. After both had time to familiarize themselves with the concepts, I gave them the assignment and told them they had 2 hours to complete it.
They created, edited and directed the movie themselves. The idea came from a tale in a book of Aesop’s fables that my daughter keeps. The only supervision that was required was for the voice over portion, which is admittedly pretty tricky. Both enjoyed the project and have since created many more movies using the Lego Movie Maker.
In-Class Writing Improvement Project: Rhetorical Rap Battle
Overview:
Rap battles are, by their very nature, battles for rhetorical supremacy. There are multiple ways to defeat your opponent; a well crafted appeal to the audience can best even the soundest of reasons. The object of this lesson would be to use this unique style of argument to improve the students ability to formulate well reasoned arguments and identify rhetorical devices in opposing arguments. It would also serve as a great supplemental assignment for a section on poetry.
Organization:
Students are split into pairs of competing teams of up to four students. Students have one class period to craft their argument using Rationale Online. The following class period the rap battle would take place between the opposing teams.The teams would then swap verses and dissect their opponents arguments. Their critiques would be brought to the following class, listing any fallacies they find.
Participation:
The teams would work together to formulate the points of reason using rationaleonline.com. Students would then work independently the remaining class period and at home to craft their verse.
Presentation:
Students would present in a back and forth order to establish a peer determined victor. Use of student provided beats are encouraged.
Subject Matter:
Anything (within reason). Sports teams rivalries, comic book characters, Han Solo vs Boba Fett, Coke vs Pepsi etc.
Grading Criteria:
Students would have successfully completed the assignment by turning in a written form of their verse on the assignment due date, and their opposing argument critique the following class. Students are not required to participate in the actual rap battle, but for those electing not to do so an additional supplementary explanation of their verse would be required. The verses will be composed using any rhyme scheme or arrangement the student chooses but may not contain any: offensive language (grade-level dependent), personal attacks, or other derogatory content. All would constitute a poorly reasoned argument, and thus a failing grade.The verse should contain:
My hope is that a project like this would get students interested in rhetoric, the different types of appeals, and the use of fallacies. This area of writing is often overlooked in my opinion primarily because of its dry nature, but with the right presentation students could benefit from learning some of the basic rules of rhetoric. It would also expose the students to rationaleonline.com, a great visual organizational resource
Oral History Project: Humans of the Citadel
Background:
Events and periods in history send rippling effects through our society, forever altering the lives of those they effect. Some events help frame a particular time in people’s lives, such as The Great Depression. Everyone has a connection to history, and certain moments stand out more than others as significant to us.
Overview
This Oral History project will focus on employees and faculty who work around the school. Specifically, how an event or period in history impacted their life. I wanted to focus on something that could be done in any setting. Because no one event is focused on, finding willing participants should make the project relatively straight forward. The interview will eventually be transcribed onto paper so any recording device can be used for the project to conduct the interview. This helps ease any technology limitations students may have. The picture, which will accompany the written portion of the project, can be taken using any device but a brief lesson on photography might be useful.
Assignment:
This will be an ongoing student assignment, similar to a midterm paper. They will conduct a 45-minute interview with an assigned employee of the school, unless the student has a faculty member they prefer to interview. The two will communicate via email to establish which historical event or period they will discuss, the location of the interview, and a time to meet.
The location of the interview is unimportant so long as the conversation can easily be recorded. The interview should focus briefly on the event itself (an overview will suffice), and then more extensively on the person’s memories of that event or period in history. Students should use questions that prompt introspection as opposed to summary. Example questions might be:
- How did the event impact their lives?
- Was the individual at the school when the event happened?
- How did the event change the way they viewed the world?
- Did it cause them to make changes in their own lives?
- Did it impact their family or friends as well?
Students should spend the majority of the interview in this area of discussionAfter the interview, students will prepare a “Humans of New York” style blog post about the person, complete with a photo. The post should be between 500-900 words and consist primarily of quotations from the person. This will challenge the student to look at the interview in totality and narrow it to a smaller, more acutely insightful vision into that person’s own history.
Evaluation:
Throughout the process, students will be required to make regular reports of the progress on their project. Students will email the topic, time and location of the interview, for example. They will also follow up reporting any issues they encountered during the interview. Because the project is weighted more heavily in areas outside traditional composition, grading will focus more on the overall effort put into the project, the presentation, and timely completion.
Wiki
For my wiki project, I wanted to create something that would be useful to the students. My goal is to have the students create a wiki that will serve as a study guide for their midterm and final exams. I am someone who personally stresses about tests way more so than papers. I never feel like I know enough information about something, and as an undergrad that led to many anxiety-filled late nights and early mornings. I never felt like my notes were good enough. The wiki I plan to use will assign days throughout the semester to each student. For that day, the students will be responsible for completing their portion of the wiki. They will also post an analysis in the Discussion portion of the page, where they will state an observation about the text, and then formulate a question based on this observation. In this way, I hope the page would also serve as a brainstorming area for potential paper topics for the students.
Link: ENGL 101 Wiki
Blog
My goal for the blog is to reward students who are willing to put forth effort. If a student is a poor test taker, I want to have a structure in place to allow that student to work their grade up to an A. The same is true for students who do not feel comfortable contributing in class. A weekly reflection blog might provide a venue to allow students who struggle in a variety of areas to show effort in another way.
For the blog, I would ask students to perform a minimum of one entry per week reflecting on our reading and class discussion. The content would focus on ideas and themes from the text that might be further explored in a paper. Often it seems that the key to developing a paper topic is to simply put ideas on paper and allow them to take shape. Opening a blank word document and trying to think of the first words to type for a research paper can be intimidating. A blog can collect ideas as the student progresses through the story, ones that can be explored at a later time. It also leaves open the possibility of reflecting on an idea or theme over the course of the text. This would allow a student to formulate multiple ideas as they read the assignment. By writing these observations down as they go, they can also keep track of quotes and page numbers. This would hopefully minimize frustrating quests to relocate particular quotes or scenes from a book.
I would also use the blog as an alternative form of class participation. The goal would be to include students who might be afraid to offer their opinions during class, or have social anxiety. A personalized blog might be a way for such a person to participate in class without the accompanying speaking portion. I plan on reading the posts before our first class for the week, and bringing up points that students discussed in their reflections. This might provide an opportunity to those who do not wish to vocally participate in class a chance to join the discussion as well.
As long as the students enter a minimum number of posts over the course of the semester, they will earn credit for completing the blog. If a student explored a theme at length (~750 words) and cited examples from the text, they would receive bonus credit that would offset low in-class participation or low quiz scores.
Technology Article: Using 3-D Printing in the Classroom
Andrew Gillen’s article “The new standard in technology education: 3-D design class” focuses on the growing 3-D design market and the educational opportunities it offers (The article is available in full .pdf form from the Citadel library). Gillen chooses to focus on the 3-D design process itself as an educational tool that furthers STEM learning in the classroom. Gillen lays out a complete plan to implement a 3-D design class in a middle school environment, although the exercise would seem beneficial at any level of mathematics or science. His plan is interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which that it also incorporates an artistic element in a truly complimentary way. The 12-week course involves a gradual progression of instruction, culminating in an independent project and presentation.
Gillen describes his class plan in detail, starting with the free download that allows teachers to begin the process, AutoDesk 123D Design (1). Using this and online tutorials, Gillen describes how teachers can easily establish, “a 3-D design class to supplement traditional technology education” (1). The process begins with an introduction project meant to “ease students into modeling” (1). The process uses orthographic projections, or a view in which each projection is of a particular side of and object (See Figure 1). Using an orthographic projection, and following a brief introduction, students are asked to build the projections in 3-D using Lego blocks. Gillen describes how the difficulty can be adjusted for each students needs. He also provides a link to his checklist used to assess students on the project.
After the students become comfortable with the concepts of 3-D modeling, Gillen moves them into the next portion of the course. Drawing on their mathematics curriculum and a knowledge of the xy graphing system, Gillen adds a third, and possibly unknown coordinate, the z axis. Using the AutoDesk software, students are now ready to begin designing in 3-D. Gillen provides a detailed guide that includes when and what tools to introduce to students to allow them to build their own knowledge and skill set independently. Gillen then describes the two culminating projects for the course. The smaller, group-orientated mini-project, and the larger, independent final project. The mini-project combines the 2-D orthographic projections with the more advanced 3-D one, and uses them to create assembly files and assembly constraints within the AutoDesk software. This practice ensures that the students are prepared to do the same task independently for their final project.
For the culminating project, students are tasked with demonstrating from start to finish a complete engineering design process. Gillen describes this “simplified engineering design process” in 6 steps (11). One part of the project, the 3-D printing of the project, can be bypassed if a 3-D printer is unavailable. The purpose of the project, is for students to identify and design something that solves a problem. The final presentation includes a 3-D model, a sketch of the design, a computer model, and the isometric and orthographic design sketches as well.
I could easily see many applications for Andrew Gillen’s 3-D design class. His practical course plan provides a clear plan to introduce and evaluate students on a simplified 3-D engineering design process. He provides links to free software as well as checklist for guidance on assessing students throughout the process. A course like this one might grab the interest of someone in a class who previously was not interested in engineering. The opportunity to create something from imagination inspires people differently, and a demonstration with a 3-D printed model seems like a great reward for students. Given budget constraints, I doubt many schools can afford 3-D printers, but perhaps a parent who owns one might be willing to help out. Even without the model, however, the course has merit of its own in exposing students to an interesting career field.
Works Cited
Gillen, Andrew. "The new standard in technology education: 3-D design class." Science Scope. Summer 2016. pp. 8-15
Please Answer in the Form of a Question
Jeopardy Rocks is a great classroom resource that could be used in many applications. While Jeopardy Rocks has many possible applications, its most obvious uses would be as a study aide or warm up exercise in the classroom. Game creation is incredibly easy and free, allowing the user to begin creating with very little hassle. Because each Jeopardy quiz has a unique URL (for instance mine is www.jeopardy.rocks/licari), many of the issues with logging in or passwords can be avoided. This makes the technology inherently more reliable for use.
As previously stated, I would use this as a warm up exercise. Any grade associated with it would be related to the participation grade, as keeping track of "points" in any kind of meaningful way would likely become clumsy very quickly. Instead, I would use this like Kahoot!, purely as a way to grab students attention in the opening minutes of class. I would model the game around exam questions, so students could study for the examine by playing the game if they wanted. By adding this incentive for the students to "play," the game would hopefully become a tool that adds to the students understanding of the course material and less of a novelty exercise.
Test your literary might!
Mission to Mars
As technology advance us to Mars and beyond, science fiction increasingly has become science scientific fact. National Geographic’s 2016 series Mars: A Global Event features a fictional voyage to Mars using the technology that the documentary explores. This blending of science fact and science fiction might also be used in the classroom to generate cross-discipline interest, and refine writing skills by demonstrating the importance of researching a topic.
For my revision, I would re-examine my wiki assignment. Although I think my previous assignment would work in a college setting, I wanted to create something for lower grade levels that encourages interest across disciplines. The wiki will divide the current NASA and Space-X spaceship models into component parts and systems which the class will be responsible for researching. Those assigned to a system, for example, will write a description of the systems purpose, its use, and potential casualties originating from that system and their impact on the mission. They would be encouraged to embed videos and pictures that help visualize any concepts (a video of the Mars Rover launch might be helpful for example). The goal is to create a basic understanding of how the craft is constructed and operated. I have broken the project into systems that vary enough that I hope they will find an interest in exploring one of them.
After the systems and parts of the craft are understood, the class would then turn to writing a Mars exploration story that incorporates that technology into the plot. An example might be a story about the launch and transit to Mars.
The goals of the project would be to encourage cross-discipline interest and help students write more confidently about a subject by showing the importance of research. Whereas a student previously might have written, “The rocket blasted off into the sky,” they might now more accurately describe, “Jets of flame ignited the atomized liquid oxygen, and a roar of fire bellowed from the ships massive engines.” Thanks to NASA’s expansive website and Elon Musk’s policy of openly sharing his technology, research for the project is easy and comprehensive.
Evaluation
The research portion of the project appears intimidating, but the NASA and Space-X Websites are filled with easy to understand information. I am not a fan of group presentations, so I wanted to keep the grading criteria loose in this area and low stakes (will not drop a student a letter grade). For the short story my focus in grading will be the creative integration of our research into their imagery and narrative. I have set up the evaluation criteria in this way to put the emphasis on getting the project done on time to ensure the Overview can be completed, and the short stories portion can begin. The participation grade is in place primarily as a grade booster.
Reflection
Over the course of the fall 2016 semester, the importance of pedagogical training has become abundantly clear. While the MAT program is specifically designed to provide this training, the MA program traditionally does not. With an eye toward teaching at the collegiate level, this creates a potential problem if the MA is a terminal degree. ENGL 564 has taught me the importance of actively seeking solutions to teaching obstacles such as this. As a ELA instructor, this means finding ways to effectively convey information to students and evaluate them. Teaching with Technology was, at its core, a class that emphasized effective content distribution over “using technology to use technology.”
To be an effective educator, using technology has become essential. Cloud storage, like Google Drive, is quickly becoming the standard inside even brick and mortar institutions. For example, all three of my classes utilized some banner type website or wikipage for content distribution and collection. Compare this to five years ago, when as an undergrad I can only recall a single class that used technology in a similar fashion. This trend toward digital learning seems to be only gaining momentum and so the need to sort the useful from the superfluous will also become a key skill with regard to teaching technology. This course has prepared me to make this decision by providing a framework for analyzing available software, creating content for the classroom, and project self-evaluation.